motor neurone disease and Life/CI cover

silverfoxuk

My wife's father died of motor neurone disease aged 64 (diagnosed 18 months earlier).
We're currently discussing putting in place decreasing term life insurance (£120k over 23 yrs) , familiy income benefit (£1,500 pm indexed over 23 yrs) and possibly a small CI policy (level term £35k) over 23 yrs. My wife is age 37.
She's getting concerned that underwriters might either exclude mnd for her (research shows with mnd 90% of cases are not hereditary but 5-10% of cases are, but there is currently no test for it), or turn her down for insurance altogether (or load premiums). Are there some insurance cos that have better underwriters than others - ie willing to discuss a condition and suggest if a loading would be applicable? Should an IFA be able to speak to underwriters prior to submission of a proposal for insurance just to check what their approach to the condition would be?
We were going to go with Norwich Union for the decreasing term life ins & CI, and Legal & General for the familiy income benefit as they are the cheapest, but I don't want to skimp a few pounds if we can get better quality cover elsewhere. Any opinions?

silvercar

Awful thing to have to go through. I hope you and your family are getting your lives back on trap.

Have you tried the MND association for advice? I was told that the cases most likely to be heriditary are those where the length of time between diagnosis and losing someone is long, though I know there is no test. This information was only heresay, from an MND volunteer.

I'm sure that the correct procedure is to declare it to an insurer and either accept that there may be a higher premium or accept that that disease will be excluded.

olly300

Go through independant financial advisor.

They will do all the leg work for you and know what companies to avoid. They do claim to speak to underwriters.

However you must ensure that you admit every single ailment or disease that you have ever been to the doctors for or suffered from in the last 5 years, and anything that your parent's died off or suffered from so if there are any problems then the broker can help.

Also make sure you complete the forms yourself. The broker may redo the form but then you can ensure that you put everything on the form.

Most underwriters seem to be concerned with hereditary diseases that affect people's parents under 60. So while your father-in-law died of something it's the age when he was struck down with it is more important.